The Fiji Labour Party and the Freedom Alliance Party today have agreed to contest the general election in partnership and cooperation under the FLP banner.

The two parties officially signed the agreement at the FLP headquarters in Suva this afternoon.

The parties however, have not confirmed or hinted the number of candidates that will contest the election next month.

FLP’s Parliamentary Leader Aman Singh says both parties have policies that are people centered and they will also ensure social and economic justice for all Fijians.

“We believe in inclusive, open, honest and accountable government and sustainable development policies that will ensure the long term prosperity of the nation and our people. We come to the 2018 general election with the same passion and commitment to improve the lot of our ordinary people based on shared values and respect for human rights and democracy.”

Freedom Alliance Party leader Jagath Karunaratne says they’ve spent months talking with other parties for a possible partnership and cooperation but majority declined.

However, Karunaratne has commended the FLP for showing interest to contest the election together.

“We will try our best as freedom alliance until the writ of election to bring all the parties together and we did unfortunately this is where we ended up, we stuck to our guns and our goals and objectives and then finally we decided this is it, it’s just us, let’s just do it”

The two parties will finalize their candidate nominations before its deadline with the Elections office by mid-day next Monday.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party in the 2014 election secured 11,670 votes with majority votes from the west while Freedom Alliance formerly known as Fiji United Freedom Party secured only 1072 votes.

Both missed the five percent threshold that is needed for any party to stand a chance to win a seat in parliament.